The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:  

Do requirements by The College of Nurses of Ontario need reform to address the nursing shortage? One doctor says they do based on her experience.

GUEST: Dr. Mariana Bueno, Research Fellow with The Hospital for Sick Children

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Just three days into 2022, Ontarians were greeted by the sight of Premier Ford intoning that the new wave of the pandemic is like “nothing we’ve ever seen” and that a “tsunami” of cases is about to swamp the province’s health-care system.

But, Ford had the math three weeks ago, when the Ontario Science Table reported that it had tracked 30 cases of Omicron per million inhabitants as of Dec. 10. That’s 450 cases for a province of 15 million people. By then, the world knew that Omicron cases double every two to three days.

So why did Ford not bite the bullet before Christmas? The only answer, in this election year, is politics. Instead of hurting businesses at one of the busiest times of the year, as well as earning the ire of the anti-lockdown crowd, he chose to hurt millions of other people. 

GUEST: Tasha Kheiriddin, Principal at Navigator and VP of the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation

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Students and teachers in Ontario will heading back to the classroom as scheduled on Monday January 17th.

The province said while students and teachers pivoted to online learning, officials would work to deploy non-fit-tested N95 respirators for education and child-care staff, high quality three-ply masks cloth masks for students, and additional HEPA filters for classrooms.

GUEST: Karen Brown, President of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO)

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday advised against travel to Canada because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases.

The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to "Level Four: Very High" for Canada, telling Americans they should avoid travel to its northern neighbour. The CDC currently lists about 80 destinations worldwide at Level Four. It also raised the island of Curaçao to Level Four on Monday.

GUEST: Reggie Cecchini, Washington Correspondent for Global News

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

From cities struggling to keep enough emergency responders on duty to staffing shortages hampering the Canadian food supply chain, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant is hampering the ability of public services to operate at full capacity across Canada.

The sudden surge of infections has spurred some government officials to begin developing contingency plans.

Why doesn't the government make it easier for international frontline workers? 

ALSO: Some hospitals are bringing back unvaccinated staff (Niagara) how do we navigate this staffing crisis ethically?

GUEST: Dr. Nancy Walton, Director of the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing & Associate Dean of Ryerson University and Deputy Chair of the Health Canada Research Ethics Board

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Surging COVID-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant have forced many economists to reconsider their predictions for the Canadian economy in 2022, but it’s not the only shock that could throw a wrench into forecasts.

Economists at Capital Economics say COVID-19 is just one of five potential unknowns that could disrupt their forecasts for this year.

GUEST: Marvin Ryder, Professor with the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing ahead with a vaccine mandate for international truckers despite increasing pressure from critics who say it will exacerbate driver shortages and drive up the price of goods imported from the United States.

Canada will require all truckers entering from the United States to show proof of vaccination starting on Saturday as part of its fight against COVID-19.

That could force some 16,000, or 10%, of cross-border drivers off the roads, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) estimates. The government estimates 5% of drivers will be impacted, according to a government source.

GUEST: Stephen Laskowski, President of The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA)